Gentoo ESD issue

Ok, so basically its like this. I get skype, make a call, sound is horrible. Incredibly choppy and all. Look it up, and people recommend esd. Ok, so I go alone, get gaim. Notice, no sounds. Think back to when I did have sound with it and was able to play music, when I used FC3. What did I have on their as the selection audio server? ESD. So, I try to look up how to get ESD on Gentoo/Gnome, and cant find anything. There is nothing in portage either that would be what I need I think. Anybody know what I can do?

nevermind, I have found arts works just as well, and is in portage.

Question. Does anybody know how to make artsd run at startup, and is there a way to make my sound levels stick? They reset to default everytime I reboot.

Ok, skip the last question. Right now, I just want to know how I can get sound mixing to work? I cannot have sound come through XMMS and Gaim or Skype or anything at the same time. What do I need to do?